UP govt planning to ban PFI: Report

New Delhi, Mar 29: The battle against coronavirus is a tough one and it required harsh decisions to keep India safe, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first Mann Ki Baat after the 21-day lockdown was imposed in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
"The battle against COVID-19 is a tough one and it did require such harsh decisions. It is important to keep the people of India safe. A disease must be dealt with at the very beginning as delay makes it incurable," said Prime Minister Modi.
He said that as the coronavirus has put the entire world in lockdown, so "India is doing the same."
"It is a challenge before everyone, science and knowledge, poor and rich, powerful and weak. It is neither restricted to a nation nor region or particular weather. This virus is bent upon killing human beings, eliminating them. Hence all of us, the entire humanity, must unite and resolve to eliminate it," he added.
Addressing the 63rd edition of his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister had sought forgiveness from all countrymen, and especially the poor, for the nationwide lockdown in the country in the view of the novel coronavirus.
During his address to the nation on March 24, the Prime Minister had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly virus. 

Mumbai, Jul 13: In a significant landmark, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has achieved a doubling-rate of 50 days for COVID-19 cases, a top official said on Monday.

This was possible because of the civic body's 'open testing policy', implying tests without prescriptions, making it the only city in the country to implement it.

"After the open testing policy, our testing has gone up from 4,000 to 6,800, daily. But the total positive cases have come down from 1,400 to 1,200 now," BMC Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal told IANS.

Of these 1,200 positive cases, the symptomatic cases are less than 200, so the BMC needs only 200 beds daily, the civic chief said.

Even the BMC's discharge rate now stands at 70 percent, and on Sunday, after allotting beds to all patients, there were still 7,000 COVID beds plus 250 ICU beds lying vacant, said Chahal.

For this achievement, Chahal gave the credit to the entire 'Team BMC' where - despite losing a little over 100 officials to the virus - civic officials and other Corona warriors are engaged 24x7 in controlling the pandemic for over four months.

Since the first case was detected in Mumbai on March 11 (after the state's first infectees in Pune on March 9) and the state's first death notched in Mumbai on March 17, the current Maharashtra Covid-19 tally stands at 2,54,427 cases and fatalities at 10,289, while Mumbai has recorded 92,988 cases with a death toll of 5,288.

New Delhi, Jul 19: Amid the political firestorm in Rajasthan following Sachin Pilot's rebellion, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday called for amending the anti-defection law to ban all defectors from holding public office for five years and fighting the next election.

Sibal also said that the "antibodies" against the "virus of corrupt means" to topple elected governments lie in amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law).

His attack comes in the wake of Pilot's open rebellion against the Ashok Gehlot government, which has been on shaky ground since, with at least 18 legislators backing the rebel leader.

Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister and the state Congress chief earlier this week.

The Congress has accused the BJP of making efforts to topple the Gehlot government by indulging in horse-trading.

"Need for Vaccine: Virus of 'corrupt means' to topple elected governments has spread through a 'Wuhan like facility' in Delhi," Sibal tweeted, in an apparent swipe at the BJP.

"Its 'antibodies' lie in amending the Tenth Schedule. Ban all defectors from: Holding public office for five years, fighting the next election," he said.

Taking a swipe at Pilot over his claim that he is not joining the BJP, Sibal on Thursday had asked what happens to his "ghar wapsi" and whether Rajasthan's dissident legislators are vacationing in Haryana under the "watchful eye" of the saffron party.

In the house of 200, the Congress has 107 MLAs, including the 19 dissidents who have been issued notices of disqualification by the speaker and they have challenged them in the high court.

The Congress has maintained the claim that the Gehlot government has the support of 109 MLAs, including the two BTP MLAs.